Science + art + theater = new ways to bridge disciplines

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A partnership between two University at Buffalo faculty members and Buffalo’s Torn Space Theater supported by the Simons Foundation is exploring and celebrating often underappreciated connections between science, art and theater.

The Buffalo trio is one of just 15 groups nationwide that have been awarded a $30,000 grant from the Simons Foundation as part of its Open Interval program. The grants are extremely difficult to get; fewer than 10% of applicants are successful.

Launched in 2024, the Simons program was designed to encourage artists from all genres to collaborate with scientists and integrate science into their work to engage audiences. This year, according to the foundation, the grants are “designed to support a dedicated period of thought partnership and exploration between artists and scientists, facilitated by curators and arts producers who are passionate about the intersection of art and science.” 

The Buffalo trio consists of Jennifer A. Surtees, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB; Paul Vanouse, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of UB’s Coalesce Center for Biological Art; and Dan Shanahan, co-founder and artistic director of Torn Space Theater.

Western New York boasts two Simons Foundation Open Interval grantees this year: the other consists of Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center and a SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry faculty member. The UB-Torn Space trio recently hosted a regional meeting of Simons winners at the theater. 

The idea for the UB-Torn Space partnership emerged after Shanahan and his wife and Torn Space co-founder Melissa Meola attended a theater festival where they learned that the Simons Foundation was looking to fund collaborations between artists and scientists.

Coalesce partnership

“I immediately thought it would be a good fit because Paul Vanouse and I have established a partnership with Coalesce where we select artists in residence,” recalls Shanahan, also associate professor and chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Daemen University. “Through working with Coalesce at UB, I’ve been learning about how science and art come together. Finding ways to grasp science and present it to the wider public has become very exciting to me.”

Vanouse suggested Surtees as the scientist, since they have collaborated on similar initiatives. She is co-founder and co-director of the Genome, Environment and Microbiome (GEM) initiative, which in 2016 created Coalesce. The facility is a hybrid studio laboratory at UB dedicated to enabling hands-on creative engagement with the tools and technologies of the life sciences.

In her research, Surtees conducts groundbreaking scientific work focused on how cells maintain the integrity of their genetic material and how disruptions in these processes contribute to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. A passionate advocate for boosting science literacy in the general public and for exploring science through the arts, she has led some of UB’s most engaging science programs for the public.

“The point of the Simons grant is community building,” says Surtees, “stimulating conversations at the boundaries of disciplines.”

All three partners have been involved with Coalesce, which Surtees says is an example of how enthusiastically UB promotes interdisciplinary activities.

Long history of biological art

“This grant is important because it highlights Buffalo’s long history of biological art,” she says. “Coalesce uses the tools of biology and molecular biology to really interrogate big questions about humanity in a hands-on, engaged and interactive way.”

The charge from the Simons Foundation was simply that the scientists and artists should connect — however possible. But already the UB-Torn Space trio is on its way to developing a performance art piece.

The subject couldn’t be more fundamental: It’s about human breath. The partners envision developing an elaborate apparatus that is designed to create the scents and experience of human breath and breathing; the goal is to prompt the audience to reconsider how they think about breath.

“The COVID pandemic altered our relationship to each other, in terms of speaking, breathing and being part of a community and what that means,” Vanouse says.  

‘Utter’

The project’s title is “Utter.” Vanouse notes that we usually think about utterances as being purely language, but in this case the physical artwork will produce aerosols and other breath components. “It’s an ambitious project but hopefully it will look at unusual and unexplored aspects of utterances and what comes out of the body,” says Vanouse.

Surtees explains how the science and art aspects of the project will fit together like a puzzle in order to create a bigger picture. “We use the science as an entry point to interrogate important questions about what it means to be human,” she says. “For example, when we think about the microbiome, we can ask, if we are all covered in different organisms that are necessary for our well-being, where do we end and where does the microbiome begin? Are we all one big organism?”

Those are exactly the questions that “Utter” is designed to provoke among those who will interact with it. And while the final piece probably won’t be ready for a couple of years, the partners expect a prototype will be ready to be exhibited sometime next spring.

For Shanahan, the questions center around how best to connect the audience with the project. “What I think about is how can we work to translate the concepts that Paul and Jennifer are creating to the wider public within a performative context?” he says.